


The Ex-Familiar Support Group

by freydient



Category: What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Derealization, Episode: s2e08 Collaboration, Gen, Hurt and comfort, PTSD, Prompt Fic, Prompt: Familiar, The OFC Familiar "Tricia" is the short haired girl in Collaboration played by Tricia Black, Trauma, WWC2020, What We Create In October Challenge, also Celeste is nice in this one, because I think she is cool and they never name her character, the comfort is Sam the cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26770411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freydient/pseuds/freydient
Summary: A bittersweet AU where all the familiars we know and love left their masters before/around Collaboration. And they form a support group. Because they f*cken need it.
Relationships: Guillermo de la Cruz & Celeste, Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	The Ex-Familiar Support Group

**Author's Note:**

> AS IM POSTING THIS IT IS STILL OCTOBER 1st FOR ONE MORE MINUTE IN HAWAII SO IT COUNTS
> 
> Only rated T but please note the Content Warnings: Past Trauma; Slight Depictions of Flashbacks, Derealization/Dissociation

The Ex-Familiars' Support Group of the Tri-State Area meets every Friday in a church basement in Brooklyn.   
  
The Church of the Holy Innocents is none the wiser about the goat, the cat, and the several former accomplices to mass homicide that actually comprised these small-group AA meetings. And although it wasn't an immediate threat, the fact that this was one of the last places a vampire would willingly set foot in was definitely a bonus.

About two weeks ago, a withering old man appeared at the mansion's door, claiming to be Nandor's familiar. 

Guillermo's last tether to his fantasy of a glorious eternity at Nandor's side was broken when that man- _Benjy_ \- professed that Nandor was only _testing_ him when he wiped his memory and abandoned him at a gas station in Delaware, and he was _really_ ready to be turned now.

It's Guillermo's first time attending a meeting. 

Celeste, who left her master a month or so before Guillermo left Nandor, had been inviting him incessantly since she quit, but he could barely bring himself to venture outside his mother's apartment for the first several days after he quit. 

Tonight, she'd shown up unannounced and dragged his ass along with her. He'd really been given no choice, with the way his mother's face lit up when Celeste proclaimed herself Guillermo's friend and her glistening eyes that pleaded for him to get out and do something.

So he sits, in a folding plastic chair in the basement of the Church of the Holy Innocents, pondering the irony of the name. Tricia- who leads the meetings, and who Guillermo recognizes from the Staten Island familiars' mixers- is talking about being in denial and moving on, but Guillermo can barely hear her voice through the storm of memories resurfacing at present just to remind him of how severely Not Innocent he was.

He's shaken out of the daze when Tricia raises her voice to direct the group.

"Alright, repeat after me: _'My master was never going to turn me'_."

A small chorus of voices, interlaced with a soft meowing and a deep bleating, echoes back, " **My master was never going to turn me**."

Guillermo barely catches on in time; his voice is small and wavering under the others.

" _'My master did not care about me'_."

Celeste catches Guillermo's eye to his left, and feebly, he joins the mantra. " **My master did not care about me**." Every word burns at his throat, begging to stay inside, but Celeste's compassionate smile encourages him to keep up.

" _'I deserve to be treated better than how my master treated me'_."

To his right, Guillermo finds Colby, who beams warmly at him. His voice is much steadier this time as they all repeat, " **I deserve to be treated better than how my master treated me.** "

" _'My master never loved me'_."

 _Oh_. Guillermo's newfound strength crumbles around him.

" **My master** ," Guillermo tries to chant with the group.

_Was this just another simple affirmation for most familiars?_

"Never..." the circle of chairs fades to the background as the darkness settles in. He's pretty sure he's fallen behind the others now. His chest grows tight; lungs clenching up.

"...loved me," he chokes out.

Drowning, alone, in an ocean of despair, he tries uselessly to hide his face, bowing his head and squeezing his eyes shut.

A tear lands heavy on the back of his hand, folded over the other in his lap. He prays for it to evaporate, for no one to notice his pathetic crying, for Tricia to move on to the next thing and for this stupid meeting to be over so he can go home and not think about it ever again. 

But the air is still and silent around him, and his lungs are on fire with the pressure of a decade's worth of screams and cries trapped inside.

Suddenly, there's a gentle weight on his shoulders.

He's become accustomed to cold hands with sharp nails and an iron grip from behind. These hands are gentle, and warm. He lifts his head.

Several sets of knowing eyes gaze softly and sympathetically at him. Celeste and Colby, on either side of him, have reached out to very gently squeeze his shoulders. Sam has leapt off his chair and is crossing the room with a quiet jingle from his collar. He leans affectionately against Guillermo's calf, and Guillermo finally releases a broken sob.

Surrounded by more love and kindness than he's let himself receive in over a decade, he breaks down; and the freely flowing tears begin to cleanse his battered heart.


End file.
